Album Reviews : Demonium – Horrid Engorgement

Melbourne’s Demonium might not be out to push boundaries with their debut recording Horrid Engorgement, but these three tracks will do more than appease those who feast on death metal. However this isn’t just an onslaught of ferocity. Instead, these guys clearly know the important of space and melody, using it to create a slight horror-ambience that fits in well with their image.

All three tracks keep the pace nice and varied, with ever-changing riffs and drum patterns making sure things never get stale, a problem that’s not exactly rare amongst the heavier end of death metal. One of the highlights in each track is the stellar guitar solos which, thanks to their often short lengths, tend to feel more like a mad riff than a guitarist trying to show off his skills. Vocalist The Teeth Subjector (interestingly the only one with a stage name) has little variety and not a massive amount of power, but his extremely low growl fits into the horror atmosphere well.

Picking a highlight in a release like this is hard, with each track containing essentially the same elements, and both succeeding and failing on the same levels as each other. So while this three track sampler isn’t going to blow your mind with any really interesting ideas or particularly explosive tracks, it has everything required to keep you death metal fans content. 7/10

Mitch Booth is the owner, designer and grand overlord of Metal Obsession. In the few seconds of spare time he has outside of this site, he also hosts a metal radio show over on PBS 106.7fm in Melbourne (Australia) and organises shows under the name Untitled Touring. You should follow him on Twitter.